Silverfast appears to have killed my Nikon LS-30

[bob]

I never imagined that software could do this but...

I've been using NikonScan, for better or worse, ever since I bought my
LS-30. I've scanned thousands of slides without a single problem. This
weekend I downloaded the demo version of Silverfast and installed it. The
first time I invoked it from inside PS, the dialog came up as it's supposed
to. I clicked "Prescan", and the fun began. The dialog said it was focusing,
but from within the scanner I could see seemingly random blinks of thr R, G,
and B LEDs, which I've never seen before. It then proceeded to flash white,
but very dim, a quick flash every 4-5 seconds or so. This all went on for
way too long, and Photoshop had long since hung up. I could not kill the
task, so powered off the scanner and rebooted.
Now the scanner makes a long, high-pitched buzzing sound at power on, as
opposed to the normal growling I know so well, and the LED flashes quickly.
The manual says this is an indication that the scanner has failed self-test.
The scanner is no longer recognized by any program. It has ceased to exist,
to quote Star Trek.

Anyone have any experience similar to this?

Thanks
--


Bob

Travel and Astronomy Photos
www3.sympatico.ca/bomo

--

 

[Jim]

I never imagined that software could do this but...

I've been using NikonScan, for better or worse, ever since I bought my
LS-30. I've scanned thousands of slides without a single problem. This
weekend I downloaded the demo version of Silverfast and installed it. The
first time I invoked it from inside PS, the dialog came up as it's supposed
to. I clicked "Prescan", and the fun began. The dialog said it was focusing,
but from within the scanner I could see seemingly random blinks of thr R, G,
and B LEDs, which I've never seen before. It then proceeded to flash white,
but very dim, a quick flash every 4-5 seconds or so. This all went on for
way too long, and Photoshop had long since hung up. I could not kill the
task, so powered off the scanner and rebooted.
Now the scanner makes a long, high-pitched buzzing sound at power on, as
opposed to the normal growling I know so well, and the LED flashes quickly.
The manual says this is an indication that the scanner has failed self-test.
The scanner is no longer recognized by any program. It has ceased to exist,
to quote Star Trek.

Anyone have any experience similar to this?

No, but I don't see how software could do this. In other words, just
because you installed Silverfast right before the problem started, it does
not follow that Silverfast caused the problem.
Jim

 

[Hecate]

I never imagined that software could do this but...

I've been using NikonScan, for better or worse, ever since I bought my
LS-30. I've scanned thousands of slides without a single problem. This
weekend I downloaded the demo version of Silverfast and installed it. The
first time I invoked it from inside PS, the dialog came up as it's supposed
to. I clicked "Prescan", and the fun began. The dialog said it was focusing,
but from within the scanner I could see seemingly random blinks of thr R, G,
and B LEDs, which I've never seen before. It then proceeded to flash white,
but very dim, a quick flash every 4-5 seconds or so. This all went on for
way too long, and Photoshop had long since hung up. I could not kill the
task, so powered off the scanner and rebooted.
Now the scanner makes a long, high-pitched buzzing sound at power on, as
opposed to the normal growling I know so well, and the LED flashes quickly.
The manual says this is an indication that the scanner has failed self-test.
The scanner is no longer recognized by any program. It has ceased to exist,
to quote Star Trek.

Anyone have any experience similar to this?

Thanks

"Appears to have" are the operative words. There is no0 way using the
software could have done that.

It sounds like you either have a driver or hardware problem. Try
rei8nstaslling the LS-30 driver first and see what happens. If the
problem still occurs then it's most likely the hardware.

--

Hecate - The Real One
(e-mail address removed)
Fashion: Buying things you don't need, with money
you don't have, to impress people you don't like...

 

[nailer]

I use LS-30 with few progs, Silverfast amongst them, without any
problem.




*I never imagined that software could do this but...
*
*I've been using NikonScan, for better or worse, ever since I bought my
*LS-30. I've scanned thousands of slides without a single problem. This
*weekend I downloaded the demo version of Silverfast and installed it. The
*first time I invoked it from inside PS, the dialog came up as it's supposed
*to. I clicked "Prescan", and the fun began. The dialog said it was focusing,
*but from within the scanner I could see seemingly random blinks of thr R, G,
*and B LEDs, which I've never seen before. It then proceeded to flash white,
*but very dim, a quick flash every 4-5 seconds or so. This all went on for
*way too long, and Photoshop had long since hung up. I could not kill the
*task, so powered off the scanner and rebooted.
*Now the scanner makes a long, high-pitched buzzing sound at power on, as
*opposed to the normal growling I know so well, and the LED flashes quickly.
*The manual says this is an indication that the scanner has failed self-test.
*The scanner is no longer recognized by any program. It has ceased to exist,
*to quote Star Trek.
*
*Anyone have any experience similar to this?
*
*Thanks
*--
*
*
*Bob
*
*Travel and Astronomy Photos
*www3.sympatico.ca/bomo

 

[Andy Spragg]

I never imagined that software could do this but...
(snip)

Anyone have any experience similar to this?

Yes, I have. And I never imagined it was possible either. I should say
up front that my exsperience is not with Silverfast, though.

A program that I wrote and supported a small number of installations
of, used a scanner as an input device effectively 24/7, and after some
months I started to get usert reports of weird things happening to the
scanner (not a Nikon).

As a result, I went through a phase of testing every scanner I could
get my hands on, with a program I wrote that just repeatedly acquired
an image (there were a number of variations on the theme, such as
do/don't open and close the data source for every acquire; do/don't
renegotiate the image layout every time), over and over again,
hundreds or even thousands of times (I had a rough idea of how many
scans seemed to be be necessary to trigger a problem).

One of those scanners was a Nikon LS-20E that I inherited 2nd hand,
which worked fine. I didn't use it much other than for my tests, but
it worked fine before I started. Most scanners would hit problems and
generate more or less weird error messages sooner or later, but the
Nikon was hands down the flakiest. It was quite repeatable - after 14
scans the PC would abruptly reboot itself. At some point in this
process the scanner ceased to work properly - it still acquired
images, but they were corrupted in a characteristic way.

I returned it to Nikon for repair and asked if it was possible that
the fault could have been related to a software problem. They were
very guarded at first, but when I pressed the point they conceded that
yes, it was possible.

 

[tbl]

I never imagined that software could do this but...

I've been using NikonScan, for better or worse, ever since I bought my
LS-30. I've scanned thousands of slides without a single problem. This
weekend I downloaded the demo version of Silverfast and installed it. The
first time I invoked it from inside PS, the dialog came up as it's supposed
to. I clicked "Prescan", and the fun began. The dialog said it was focusing,
but from within the scanner I could see seemingly random blinks of thr R, G,
and B LEDs, which I've never seen before. It then proceeded to flash white,
but very dim, a quick flash every 4-5 seconds or so. This all went on for
way too long, and Photoshop had long since hung up. I could not kill the
task, so powered off the scanner and rebooted.
Now the scanner makes a long, high-pitched buzzing sound at power on, as
opposed to the normal growling I know so well, and the LED flashes quickly.
The manual says this is an indication that the scanner has failed self-test.
The scanner is no longer recognized by any program. It has ceased to exist,
to quote Star Trek.

If you have tried everything you can via software, keyboard &
mouse, and you're a tinkerer...

Several times over months of scanning slides, my ls-30 would just
quit. Couldn't get it going via software, so started taking it
apart. I found that the "leadscrew" that powers a carriage back
and forth, was up against one end of its travel rather firmly. I
noticed a screwdriver-slot in the end of the leadscrew, so I
gently used a small screwdriver to back it away from the stop a
turn or two. When I next powered the system up and tried to
scan, everything worked perfectly again!

It happened about 6 or 8 times over about six months of daily
scanning, but it's went for another year of similar scanning
effort after the last time I "fixed" it, and that got me to the
end of my scanning job.

If all else fails with yours, you might give it a shot. But be
very careful with the mirrors: they are "first surface" mirrors,
probably coated with aluminum of the softest alloy. You
shouldn't have any need to touch them with anything for this job,
but be careful about the accidental touch.

 

[HvdV]

If all else fails with yours, you might give it a shot. But be
very careful with the mirrors: they are "first surface" mirrors,
probably coated with aluminum of the softest alloy. You
shouldn't have any need to touch them with anything for this job,
but be careful about the accidental touch.

Quite likely it is something like this. One last, remote, possibility is that
the scanner's firmware was updated, and this went wrong, so it is now
brain-dead. If this is your last possibility, see:
http://support.nikontech.com/cgi-bi...p_prods=25,31&p_pv=2.31&p_cats=186&p_cv=1.186

Lastly, my experience with Silverfast is that if it hangs or crashes, it is
not so easy to kill entirely (Mac 10.4).

-- Hans